Best place for men's wedding bands?

[DiamondDense]

hi all, looking for an affordable, quality, classic wedding band? can all three criteria be accomplished?

it looks like e-wedidngbands has a solid selection and a decent reputation (do they?).

any thoughts on what metal makes the most sense for most men? silver? platinum? something else?

thanks.

 

[WillyDiamond]

I used e-weddingbands.com and so did my son with 100% satisfaction.
You can't beat their prices. Both done in platinum. Platinum does not need refinishing, ends up with a nice patina. Gold will need refinishing.

 

[OoohShiny]

Sterling Silver is far too soft for rings IMO, so I would recommend either precious metals...:

- Platinum - Dense, therefore 'weighty', and as WillyDiamond says, doesn't need to be refinished
- Palladium - the same family of metals as Platinum, I believe, but nowhere near as heavy.
- Gold - lots of different colours available (yellow, white, rose, even green - look at neissing rings for some cool colour options) but I think 18karat is about as pure as you want to go - 24kt is soft, as I understand it, so even 22kt might be too soft. 18kt or 9kt is usually what I see offered. White gold can be plated with rhodium (usually), which needs re-plating once in a while as WillyDiamond mentions above, or 'unplated', which gives it a warmer look. I don't think yellow or rose or the other colours would need to be re-plated, but I may be wrong.

...or you can go 'trendy' and look at silicon carbide, stainless steel, mokume gane, titanium, damascus steel, tension settings with stones in, meteorite inlays, wood...

Check out Boone Rings (www.boonerings.com) for some great options, or there are a whole range of other websites out there too! I did have a massive spreadsheet of sites on my old computer from when I was looking, but I can't get to the files now

 

[Luce]

I second e-wedding bands. I have two bands from them and am very happy with both. I ended up changed an order midstream and the customer service was outstanding. They also have free engraving. I would suggest yellow gold or platinum but I have been wearing an 18ct white gold ring from them, every day for a year now, and it does not show signs of needing a replate yet. I also have a 10ct wh gold spacer (1mm) from them and it very strong and I love it. They run specials every so often, right now they are advertising 12% off rose gold.

 

[Gussie]

Sarraf.com is also a great place for wedding bands. I have bought from both eweddingbands and sarraf and the quality is similar and very nice. Sarraf has 22k gold selections as well. Not recommending for a man but I love it for me!

 

[sledge]

I guess it depends on the guy, but I like bands that have a little more weight. I prefer a dark grey Tungsten metal, but would consider platinum. No diamonds for me. Absolutely must be a comfort fit on the inside. Yellow gold is just yuck and yesteryear. White gold doesn't do well with my body chemicals as it tends to turn yellow way too fast.

I saw a demonstration on tungsten where a guy was literally beating the ring with the different objects and it didn't scratch. That type of durability is important to me as I don't always have the luxury of second guessing myself and not doing things that might harm the band.

 

[DiamondDense]

so it sounds like Platinum (more expensive) or Palladium makes the most sense - typically speaking?

 

[sledge]

so it sounds like Platinum (more expensive) or Palladium makes the most sense - typically speaking?

Had a buddy get his girl a Vatche setting in palladium and they had some issues. It kept breaking on the bottom. I don't recall the whole story but he got frustrated sending it in over & over for repair (thankfully the shop he bought from had good customer service); however, he eventually replaced with the same band in platinum.

From that experience, I'd stay away from it. Personally I don't think anyone needs finicky metal. Also, not every jeweler is experienced with palladium (according to him).

I think platinum is a good choice and strong. If it's outside the price range I would look into the tungsten. It's cheap. The same buddy I was telling you about earlier had a tungsten ring he liked and his girl bought it in a mall jewelry store for $300 or so. It was plain and heavy much like I described earlier, but he liked well enough and it's stood the test of time thus far.

 

[OoohShiny]

Had a buddy get his girl a Vatche setting in palladium and they had some issues. It kept breaking on the bottom. I don't recall the whole story but he got frustrated sending it in over & over for repair (thankfully the shop he bought from had good customer service); however, he eventually replaced with the same band in platinum.

From that experience, I'd stay away from it. Personally I don't think anyone needs finicky metal. Also, not every jeweler is experienced with palladium (according to him).

I think platinum is a good choice and strong. If it's outside the price range I would look into the tungsten. It's cheap. The same buddy I was telling you about earlier had a tungsten ring he liked and his girl bought it in a mall jewelry store for $300 or so. It was plain and heavy much like I described earlier, but he liked well enough and it's stood the test of time thus far.

What was the width of the Vatche band? Bands for women are a lot thinner (usuallyj than men's bands, so I think it's too much of a sweeping statement to say Palladium isn't suitable for men's bands on the basis of this one experience.

Tungsten carbide can be crushed and shattered IIRC - which is good because I don't think it can be cut off in an emergency situation.

I think trying on all the options is a good way forward. For me, palladium is too light (and platinum is too expensive ) so I went with damascus steel

 

[MonkeysInk]

I bought a ring from e-weddingbands.com for myself and was pleased with the customer service and the ring. My husband has an inexpensive titanium ring from Etsy (his choice) from the seller Renaissance Jewelry.

 

[WillyDiamond]

OP
Can you post a picture of what you want?

 

[sledge]

What was the width of the Vatche band? Bands for women are a lot thinner (usuallyj than men's bands, so I think it's too much of a sweeping statement to say Palladium isn't suitable for men's bands on the basis of this one experience.

Tungsten carbide can be crushed and shattered IIRC - which is good because I don't think it can be cut off in an emergency situation.

I think trying on all the options is a good way forward. For me, palladium is too light (and platinum is too expensive ) so I went with damascus steel

I don't know the width. It was a buddy's girl and I didn't get that many details. Best I recall it was an X-prong princess cut band. I do remember that much, but not sure the model number. I can probably ask him if it's relevant.

And I would agree women's bands are thinner; however, I might also say that (most) men do things with their hands that may equalize out the thickness with the roughness in the environments they work compared to (most) women.

Either way, it was my only experience with palladium and through a friend at that so it's very subjective and isolated. FWIW, he did say the jeweler that kept repairing the ring had reported issues and when he replaced it guided him towards platinum for this reason.

It's not a bad choice if you don't have problems. Nice color and cheaper than platinum. Tungsten is cheap and strong which is why I like that one.

 

[Tanalasta_01]

Titanium is also popular. Very industrial, difficult (impossible) to resize but at the price, it’s a fantastic option.

A few people I know have more than one ...